AJ Lucas

LEADING FROM THE FRONT IN AUSTRALIA’S MINING INDUSTRY

AJ LUCAS

Dependable Drilling

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MINING Brett Tredinnick, CEO of AJ Lucas, discusses how the company has built a competitive advantage in Australia’s mining sector thanks to its reputation as a reliable partner Writer: Sean Galea-Pace Project Manager: Thomas Arnold

Drilling in Australia is relatively buoyant at the moment,” declares Brett Tredinnick, CEO of AJ Lucas (ASX: AJL).

“Our coal mine centred market has shown solid demand and there is still plenty of opportunity to place rigs in the general exploration market.

It’s always a challenge to continue to increase efficiency and reduce cost in a safe workspace.”

Mining in Australia is one of the country’s most renowned and wellestablished industries. It is a key contributor to its national economy, consisting of around seven percent of total GDP. As the fourth largest mining country worldwide, after China, Russia and the United States, Australia continues to experience ongoing demand for high-tech equipment, which showcases potential opportunities for suppliers.

Over the past few decades, the industry and Lucas have grown together in tandem. Founded in 1958, AJ Lucas established itself as a high-quality building sub-contractor.

In the years that followed, it has utilised its engineering expertise to provide specialist, niche engineering, construction and drilling services to the key sectors of energy, water and wastewater, resources and solid project management.

Based in Brisbane, Lucas possesses a fleet of 41 multi-purpose drill rigs designed specifically to service the coal market, supported by around 400 technical and administrative staff. The organisation has operations in major APAC Outlook issue 47 | 3

AJ LUCAS coal producing basins of Australia’s east coast including the Southern Coalfields, the Western Coalfield, the Gunnedah Coalfield, the Hunter Coalfield and the Bowen Basin.

Tredinnick grew up in Newcastle, New South Wales, and was surrounded by the coal and steelmaking industries, providing a backdrop for a seamless transition into the sector following the completion of his schooling. Prior to becoming the Group CEO in January 2020, Tredinnick had been involved with the organisation for over 20 years. He has worked in a variety of roles within the

company and has led and introduced initiatives that have kept Lucas’s Australian business safe, profitable, innovative and a leader in its field.

“We’ve previously successfully led the drilling business through a significant coal market downturn, with minimal impact and disruption to business, employees and customers,” he explains. “We have also managed to restructure and integrate the pipeline, drilling and support functions into a centralised lean operating platform while the business was undergoing severe market downturn and cash flow problems.

KEY SERVICES

AJ LUCAS DIRECTIONAL DRILLING: Industry leading capabilities in a lateral drilling technique that provides a more efficient and environmentally friendly solution to the requirement for draining gas prior to mining operations.

The benefit of this technique is that the drilling and production of the wells can be installed many years in advance of the planned mine workings therefore enhancing the safety of mining staff. Further, this technique enables mine operators to use extracted methane as fuel for heating or power generation.

LARGE DIAMETER DRILLING: Industry leading capabilities in a vertical drilling technique that provides a more effective and flexible solution to the gas drainage of the longwall goaf post mining operations. This technique is employed to control gas emissions at the longwall face, once again enhancing safety as well as reducing production delays arising from gas make into the tailgate.

EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT DRILLING: Multi-purpose capabilities in the exploration and development drilling on both brownfield and greenfield sites. It is critically important miners explore their resources to understand its potential benefit. Exploration drilling facilitates this very important stage in the mining process. Together with the standard geological information regarding strata sequences and thickness and possible indications of structures, boreholes can be tested for: • Coal quality, washability, rock strength and other properties.

• Stress magnitude and direction.

Hofco Oilfield Hofco Oilfield is a leading provider of oil and gas down hole equipment for hire as well as many other services related to drilling oil, gas and coal seam gas wells.

With 40 years of Australian and International experience, we have built our business on reputation for superior quality down hole tools, drill pipe strings and exceptional service.

In addition to supplying oil and gas drilling tools, Hofco also provides many other services to our clients including: asset management of drill pipe down hole drilling equipment; oil and gas drilling and service rigs Nondestructive testing (NDT) and OCTG inspection services; procurement of and servicing of down hole motors and other speciality down hole drilling tools; and fishing and well intervention design which includes onsite services.

www.hofco.com.au

Dilong Drilling Services Dilong Drilling Services is an Australian owned company with a highly skilled and experienced team providing innovative drilling solutions and products.

Our team have over 100 years combined experience in hard rock drilling. We specialise in analysing the drilling application and designing cost effective and efficient systems/ methods. We are skilled in all facets of drilling applications, systems/ methods and consumables and focus heavily in developing innovative solutions to every challenge.

We partner with some of the best and most experienced suppliers and operators in the industry to provide a full-service operation.

• Ground water information.

• Seam and surrounding strata gas content and composition.

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T +61 7 3344 1503 E sales@dilingdrilling.com.au www.dilongdrilling.com.au

MINING

Leading providers of down-hole tools and oilfield equipment hire PRODUCT AND SERVICES • • • • •

AUSTRALIAN OWNED AND OPERATED

Asset Management & Procurement Oilfield Equipment Rental Oilfield Equipment Servicing Oilfield Equipment Inspections Fishing & Well Intervention

Tel: (+61) 7 555 22 000 | Fax: (+61) 7 555 22 020 | Mob: (+61) 412 377 881 | www.hofco.com.au

Dilong Drilling Sevices proudly supports AJ Lucas’s mining operations nationally.

www.dilongdrilling.com.au

+61 7 3344 1503 | sales@dilongdrilling.com.au

Dilong Drilling’s extensive experience and proven track record in meeting challenges and designing solutions contribute to getting jobs done on time and on budget.

We design, fabricate, manufacture, supply, service and hire equipment to optimize performance, profit, safety and environmental sustainability for every drilling application.

APAC Outlook issue 47 | 5

AJ LUCAS “Since becoming CEO, our team have managed to maintain our market share and stay ahead of customer requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Tredinnick affirms that one of his biggest challenges so far in his tenure has been navigating the COVID-19 landscape – however, the way in which

the organisation has mitigated its impact is cause for pride.

“It’s been difficult to manage a mostly fly in fly out workforce during the pandemic,” adds Tredinnick.

“Thanks to early action, commitment from our customers and our people, we have remained COVID free and downtime on site has been negligible.”

A SUSTAINABLE APPROACH Lucas is a market leader in surface to inseam drilling techniques and has drained over 100 kilometres of coal in advance for safer mining. This has meant zero interaction with the underground mining operations as it is all completed from the surface with no requirement for people to go underground in the mine itself.

The technology is tried and tested, and allows miners to drain unwanted methane gas well in advance of mining operations to the benefit of their own safety. This also means that technology allows for the capture and utilisation of the methane gas, generating power for re-use instead of emitting into the atmosphere. Lucas will continue to further enhance the technology, reaching further laterally and also removing an increasing amount of surface infrastructure whilst aiming for an even lower surface footprint and a lower impact on the environment.

Lucas has always had a considerable influence on the local and regional communities that it works in. This consists of the employment of locals, sponsorships of young sports stars of the future, local sporting clubs or staff-driven contributions to those recognised charities such as Multiple Sclerosis Australia.

Hard Metal Industries HMI offers a comprehensive range of drilling tools, covering applications such as large diameter PDC tools, ground engineering applications, water drilling, casing systems and tunneling applications.

We have inhouse manufacturing facilities, providing design, engineering, manufacture, and maintenance. Machining is undertaken on our 7 CNC and 3 manual machines, including 5 axis milling. Custom tools for construction, mining and the drilling industry are developed and manufactured in house, to our customer’s requirements HMI is proud to be supporting our customers.

www.hmi.com.au

Oz-Tac Engineering Oz-Tac Engineering are specialists in tailored, innovative manufacturing solutions.

We are proud to be recognised as leaders in our industry both regionally and nationally through private company, industry partnerships and Australian Defence Force projects.

Our facilities are extensive with a head office based in Gympie, our mobile teams can service other regional and metropolitan areas within Queensland and the rest of Australia.

As well as steel manufacturing, Oz-Tac can offer a full suite of additional services in house; • • • • • • •

Abrasive blasting Industrial Coatings Machining Plasma Cutting Crane Hire Prime Mover Transportation Full compliance documentation

www.oztacengineering.com.au

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MINING

PERFORMANCE YOU CAN TRUST Design • Engineer • Manufacture • Maintain

+61 (07) 3714 5700 | www.hmi.com.au | sales@hmi.com.au PDC Bits and Hole Openers | Stabilisers and Subs | Recovery Tools | Custom Tools | Hammers Bits and Casing Systems

100% Australian Owned and Operated, providing engineering soluti tio ons since 2003.

Oz-Tac Engineering has previously partnered with some of the largest, most successful and recognised companies and industry leaders across the country. We have the depth of experience in the engineering industry where we clearly understand not only functionality, but compliance.

www.oztacengineering.com.au APAC Outlook issue 47 | 7

AJ LUCAS

Brett Tredinnick, CEO

“THERE ARE EXCITING TRIALS UNDERWAY TO SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCE WELL CONSTRUCTION COST FOR OUR CUSTOMERS. IN ADDITION, WE PLAN TO CONTINUE TO EXPLORE OTHER MARKET OPPORTUNITIES ON A CASE-BY-CASE BASIS” Short term COVID impact aside, Lucas is primarily exposed to metallurgical coal which has strong long-term fundamentals. Base world steel demand in tandem with significant rises in Indian steel production are anticipated to drive increased global demand over the next 15 years.

In addition to being a leading provider of drilling services, primarily to the Australian coal industry, the organisation is also an investor in the exploration, appraisal and commercialisation of oil and gas prospects in the UK, with a long and proven history of returns from conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon resource investments.

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Tredinnick believes that the organisation’s competitive advantage comes from its determination to deliver best-in-class customer support, the CEO going on to describe some of the firm’s ongoing activities.

“Lucas delivers intelligent and practical solutions to support the Australian mining sector in green and brownfield exploration as well as pre and post drainage of mine gas via vertical and specialised directional drilling methods,” he says.

“Geographically, we’re currently drilling on the eastern seaboard of Australia, but have and will continue to drill anywhere across Australia.

Our strategic bases in Moranbah, Queensland, and the Illawarra,

New South Wales, provide a solid foundation for strong customer support. Our clients are predominantly Tier 1 coal mining companies, where we employ around 300 people and drilled 569,500 metres during the latest financial year.”

Indeed, Lucas is the only drilling company in Australia that offers an integrated, end-to-end, solution to design and drill a customer’s wells.

The organisation has in-house drilling engineering and directional drilling (steering) capability that it uses daily, and Tredinnick believes his company’s ability to be agile and respond to the latest trends and demands within the market is vital.

“Lucas has always looked for market openings coupled with the right people to deliver a safe performance for our customers,” he affirms. “We’re also not scared to alter and adapt our processes to suit our clients’ requirements, and we continue to look for better ways to do every job. We get in and roll up our sleeves to deliver for our customers. This includes designing and building a new type of surface to in-seam drilling rig.”

Tredinnick works hard to ensure his organisation meets the demands of its customers and affirms Lucas’s wideranging expertise truly sets it apart from its competitors.

“One of our customers is a Tier 1 mining company and requires a wide range of drilling to be undertaken over two coal mine sites,” he continues.

“We drill a full suite of well types, from exploration through vertical drainage to specialised surface to in-seam (SIS) extended reach drainage to drain methane from the mining area to enable safe extraction of the coal.

“Our crews and their safe performance are integral to our customer’s overall performance and as such are closely monitored by our customer for safe operations. Recently, we achieved one-year injury free across both sites with 13 rigs, more than 100 people and over 250,000 hours worked. The

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feedback from our customer was that our crews were seen to be part of the customer’s team and they were very proud of our performance.”

Tredinnick also understands the value of an efficient and effective supply chain and believes Lucas’s key suppliers are at the heart of operations.

“Without our key suppliers delivering for our operations we wouldn’t be able to support our customers at the high level that we do,” he explains. “Our suppliers also share our vision of unlocking efficiency and reducing overall cost for our customers. Most of our suppliers have been a part of our success for a long period of time. We are proud of the supplier relationships that we have been able to forge over the last 20 years and we are looking forward to continuing them.”

With the future in mind, Tredinnick has a clear idea of what he hopes the next few years to look like at AJ Lucas.

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“I expect us to continue to provide safe and efficient operations as well as reduce well construction times with zero incidents. Ultimately, our overall aim is to decrease the cost for customers,” he says.

“It’s important that we continue to explore new technologies to the drilling market in order to improve data delivery and reduce cost.

There are exciting trials underway to significantly reduce well construction cost for our customers. In addition, we plan to continue to explore other market opportunities on a case-bycase basis.”

AJ LUCAS Tel: +61 7 3363 7333 sales@lucas.com.au www.lucas.com.au

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AJ LUCAS Level 22, 167 Eagle Street, Brisbane, 4000, Queensland, Australia Tel: +61 7 3363 7333 sales@lucas.com.au www.lucas.com.au PRODUCED BY APAC OUTLOOK MAGAZINE